Garage door



, 1931- c. G. JOHNSON I 1,820,195

1 Aug.

GARAGE DOOR Filed Oct. 6, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet l Patented Aug. 25,- 1931- PATENT? oFFlca CLARENCE G. OHNSON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN GARAGE DOOR Application filed October 6, 1924. Serial NIL-741,837.

This invention relates to doors more particularly applicable for garages, and of the type known as flexible panel doors, wherein the door comprises a series of panels of sub- 6 stantial width arranged lengthwise and in marginal contact across a doorway, said panels being hinged together and adapted to be guided by suitable rails into an approxi-.

mately horizontal position extending rear- 10 wardly from the proximity of the top of the doorway.

Several types of such door constructions have been already proposed and patented, and it is an object of the present invention to 15 provide an improved construction of simple nature which may be readily applied as a unit to the doorways of garages or similar structures, and which when so applied will require a minimum of adjustment or particular care in the application, in order to eifect a proper fitting of the door relative to the doorway. V

It is also an object ofthe said invention ,to improve the construction of the hinging of the panels together, and at the same time to increase the scope of usefulness of the hinges, the invention being further directed towards the provision of combined hinges and brackets for the door, whereby both the positioning of the door when closed and the relative movement of the panels when the door is operated are controlled by the said hinges.

It is still further an object of the said invention to provide a very efiective and simplified arrangement of door, brackets and track, in which contact of the door with the frame of the doorway is firmly established when the door is closed, and in which such contact is relieved many other position of the door, in order to reduce friction or undesirable resistance to the opening or closing of said door.

Still further objects subsidiary to or resulting from the aforesaid objects, or from the construction or operation of the said invention as it may be carried into effect, will become apparent as the said invention is'hereo inafter further disclosed.

- In carrying the said invention into effect I may provide a unit comprising a sectional longitudinally panelled door having brackets extending rearwardly from the meeting edges of the panels and from the top and bottom of the upper and lower panel, the amount of rearward extension of the said brackets decreasing from the uppermost bracket'tothe lowermost bracket, certain of said brackets being in the form of special hinges, and all of said brackets havin pintles arranged in a common plane at an ang e to the face of said door when said door is in an upright closed position; rollers mounted on the said pintles with their axes lying in such common inclined plane; tracks havin forward port ons extending upwardly in sa1d inclined plane and receiving said rollers, the upper parts of said tracks branching rearwardly from said forward parts, and forming approximately horizontal overhead tracks for said rollers when said door is opened; and

' supports for the said tracks whereby they are attachable to the garage or other structure with which the door is to be used. All of which is more particularly described and ascertained hereinafter, by way of example,

having reference to the accompanying draw ings, wherein Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a door construction in accordance with the said invention, the upper parts of the tracks and supports being shown in section;

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse section of the said door;

Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the same taken on the line 3m3w of Figure 2, and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary detailperspective view of one of the door hinges, together with its roller, and parts of the immediate construction associated therewith.

Similar characters of reference indicate similar parts in the several figures of the drawings.-

, 1, 2 and 3 indicate the sides and top of the door frame of a garage, of which 4 is the front wall provided with beams 5 extending rearwardly from the-upper inner side thereof; and 6,7, 8 and 9 are the panels of the door adapted to be closed upon the rear faces of the door panel, these panels being of substan j tial height, as will be apparent from the drawings as distinguished from the narrow strips such as are used in flexible doors com-.

monly used for a great many years.

The panels are shown as having their meeting edges rabbetted in order to insure effectual interlocking thereof when the door is closed and on the marginal portions of the said door and on the back thereof, are arranged brackets of a type which will be further described. These brackets are generally indicated by the reference numerals 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, and are provided with pintles 15, which pintles are arranged at progressively increasing distances from the door according to the height of the' hinges from the bottom of the said door. Thus, the pintle of the bracket 14 is close to the door, whilst the pintle of the bracket 10 is positioned at a substantial distance rearwardly of the said door, and the pintle of the bracket 12 is at an intermediate distance; so that all of the said pintles lie in a common plane inclined to the vertical planev of the saiddoor.

The brackets 11, 12 and 13 are in the form of special hinges and are shown as including arms 16 and 17 extending rearwardly from the door and having flanged extremities 18 and 19 which are secured to the rear surface of the said door by bolts 20, these arms in the case of the said hinges 11, 12 and 13 being each attached to adjacent panels, whereby the joints of the said panels extend between the said arms, and whereby the door may be flexed on its hinges and'the panels parted at the said joints when the door is so flexed.

The brackets 10 and 14 do not function in precisely the sam'e'manner as the brackets 11, 12 and 13, inasmuch as they are not hinges in the same sense and may accordingly be of a non-flexible construction, such as is shown in the illustration of the bracket 14 which is simply in the form of an arm 21 having a base plate 22 securedto the lower part of the door.

Mounted on the outer ends of the said pintles 15 are rollers 23 having grooves 24 in their peripheries, and these rollers are received by tracks 25 which in this case are of channeled section-having their edges inwardlyturned to form double rails 26 and 27, between which the said rollers are positioned and operated. The forward part of the said tracks are shown extending upwardly and being rearwardly inclined, whereby they extend in the same planeas the said pintles and rollers and therefore support the said door in an upright position when it is closed, as is clearly indicated in Figure 20f the drawings. This constitutes a wedge device or action which ensures a firm contact being established between the door and door frame when the said door is in its fully closed position, but

also ensures the immediate release, to all practical intents and purposes, of the said door from the door frame when the said door forming overhead tracks within which the rollers may travel and be guided upon the raising ofthe door, and as the rollers travel through the curved portions of the tracks the door is flexed and the panels separated due to the extended nature of the hinges 11, 12 and 13, this action taking place between the panels successively as they travel upwardly; and the separation of the panels in this manner alsoresults in a very easy action and elimination of any tendency to bind as the door is moved upwardly or downwardly to an open or a closed position.

- By reason of the double rail construction a very positive positioning of the door is ensured at all times, whether open, partially open, or closed, without any tendency of the door to become displaced or out of alinement either with the rails or with the door frame when the door is closed, and the bracket arrangement of the hinges together with the wedge action described ensures an outward pressure upon the panels at the joints thereof, which is very desirable when the said door is closed,so that a very firm support of the door in its closed position is obtained, as will be readily understood.

Counterbalancing of the door may be secured, such as by means of suitably mounted spring controlled ropes 28; The tracks are provided with brackets 29, the uppermost of which may be associated with the beam 5 as part of the door unit, whereby the device may be supplied to buildings with which it is to be used as a complete unit, comprising a door, together with its hardware, tracks, supports and counterbalance devices ready for installation.

The operation of the door is Very simple and may be very easily installed, the relatlve position ofthe forward parts of the tracks to the frame of the door being easily determined, and when so positioned, the balance of the mechanism requires no further adjustment in order to secure the correct fittlng and efficient operation of the device.

The particular construction and number of the panels and brackets, and the form of the tracks, may be designed. to suit various manufacturing requirements or conditions of operation, and the invention may be developed within the scope of the following claims, without departing from the essential features of the said invention, so that it is deslred that the specification and drawings be read as merely illustrative and not in a limiting sense, except as necessitated by the prior art.

What I claim is 1. In a flexible panel door construction adapted for the closing of a doorway, a plu: rality oi horizontally hinged panels,brackets extending rearwardly of said door, cer-' tain of said brackets forming the hinges of said panels, and tracks guiding said brackets cording to claim 1, wherein the hinges inelude pintles having their axes arrangedin a common plane inclined rearwardly 'from said door, and the upward parts of said tracks arecorrespondingly inclined, said pintles being provided with rollers engaging said tracks. j

4. A flexible panel door construction ac cording to claim 1, wherein the said hinges have extended bracket arms lying in a common plane each pair attached to adjacent panels.

5. In combination with the adjacent panels of a flexible door, hinges in the form of brackets having extended arms attached to contiguous parts of the adjacent panels and tracks guiding said brackets in an upward and then rearward direction upon the open- .ing of said door, and pintles connecting said arms at a point in the same plane as'the longitudinal plane of said tracks. a

6. In combination with adjacent panels of a flexible door and tracks guiding said panels in an upward and then a rearward direction upon the opening of said door, hinges connecting said panels and having their members fulcrumed in a vertical plane spaced substantially rearward of the vertical plane of said panels whereby said joint is adapted to open upon the flexing of said door and being provided withrollers engaging said tracks.

7. 'In a door of the type described, in com bination, tracks extending upwardly. and then rearwardly, a flexible door comprising a plurality. of panels of substantial width, hinges nectinghinge comprising a pair of spaced,

connecting said panels,-said hinges including I pintles, and rollers on said pintles, guided by said tracks, said pintles being situated substantially to the rear of said door whereby the panels of said door part when said door is flexed in travelling upwardly or downwardly over said-track.

8. A door according to claim -7 wherein the tracks are inclined rearwardly from the normalclosed position of said door and the.

relative distances of the pintles rearward of said door are correspondingly varied. 9. In'a flexible panel door, a panel contherefrom to form. a fulcrum, and a pintle connecting said arms at said point.

10. In a flexible panel door, a supporting bracket in the form of a panel connecting hinge comprising a pair-of spaced apart arms secured to the contiguous parts of adjacent panels and extending angularly outwardly thereof to a desirable point to form a fulcrum, a'pintle connecting said arms at said point, and a roller carried by said pintle- 11. In a device according to claim 10, in combination, a double track including a pair of opposed rails between which said roller is engaged. I

12. In a device according to claim 10, a

double railed track engaged and guiding said roller, said track comprising a-channel iron member having inwardly flanged edges forming the rails thereof. 1

13. In a flexible panel door constructionv adapted for the closing of a doorway, a pinrality of horizontally hinged panels, brackets positioned on the rear face of said door,

certain of said brackets forming the hinges of said panels, and tracks guidin said pan- CLARENCE G. JOHNSON. 

